On these sums, paid for, says the Statesman's Manual (Vol. I, p. 363), with depreciated State-bank bills (all, except a few banks, it says, in New England, having suspended specie payments), these parties cleared 13.61 per cent at the time of the loan, and a fraction over 6.94 per cent, interest per annum, which had to be paid, in part, by the men who were in the armies enduring all the hardships and exposing themselves to all the dangers incident to war, in defense of the rights, honor and dignity of the United States! And while all but seven of the subscribers lived north of the Potomac, only six lived in Massachusetts, although as the Statesman's Manual says (Vol. I, p. 354), "the war may be said to have been a measure of the South and West, to take care of the interest of the North"-New England -"much against the will of the latter."

The entire amount borrowed is said by good authorities to have been about $64,000,000; but the public debt in 1817 was nearly $86,000,000 more than it was in 1811, and, if we add the more than $5,000,000 borrow ed and paid out again in 1812, the total war debt was nearer $91,000,000; and since the population was about 8,000,000, the per capita debt was $11.37, nine-tenths of it due "north of the Potomac."

All this embarrassment of the Administration, which ultimately drove Mr. Madison to abandon in the treaty

of peace the very ground on which war was declaredthe impressment of seamen-was the work of the commercial class in New England, aided by their sympathizers in other States. 1 "Shortly after the declaration of war," says Carey, "there was a combination formed to prevent the success of the loans authorized by Congress. I believe that all those who entered into this scheme resided in the Eastern States, particularly in Boston, which was the grand focus of the conspiracy."-Page 286. Again he says: "Every possible exertion was made in Boston to deter the citizens from subscribing to the loans. Associations were entered into in the most solemn and public manner to this effect. And those who could not be induced by mild measures were deterred by denunciations. A volume might be filled with the lucubrations that appeared on this subject.

"The pulpit, as usual in Boston, came in aid of the press to secure success. Those who subscribed were in direct terms declared participators in, and accessories to, all the 'murders.'"-Page 289.

One of the "lucubrations" is quoted by Carey from John Lowell's Road to Ruin, as follows: "Money is such a drug (the surest sign of former prosperity and present insecurity of trade) that men, against their consciences, their honor, their duty, their professions and promises, are willing to lend it secretly, to support the very measures which are both intended and calculated for their ruin."

1On June 27, 1814, while preparations were going on for the holding of the "Hartford Convention,” Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, giving instructions to the Commissioners appointed to negotiate a treaty of peace, said: “On mature consideration, it has been decided, that under all the circumstances above alluded to, incident to a prosecution of the war, you may omit any stipulation on the subject of impressment, if found indispensably necessary to terminate it."

But notwithstanding the ravings of the schemers, a few persons had the courage to defy them. Among these was ex-President John Adams, who, writing to a friend in July, 1812, thus expressed himself: "It is with surprise that I hear it pronounced not only by newspapers, but by persons in authority, ecclesiastical and civil, and political and military, that it is an unjust and unnecessary war. I have thought it both just and necessary for five or six years. expected it more than five and twenty years.

* % *

I have

It would be inexcusable to class all the people of the commercial States with the traders and speculators; there were many eminent gentlemen who strove to calm the storm raised by the agitators. But in vain; it swept nearly everything before it.

And it would be uncandid not to admit that during the last two years of the war the people of Massachusetts and Connecticut were subjected to many hardships and endured many grievous wrongs because of the failure of the Federal authorities to afford them adequate protection against invasion, sack, and pillage by British forces; but it is equally true that the real responsibility lay at the doors of the agitators, who having done all they could to weaken the Federal arm, were vile enough to mislead the people and direct their discontent aginst Mr. Madison and the Southern people in general.

In the midst of all the provocations, however, the South held out the olive branch in the shape of conciliatory legislation;2 and by 1820 there was on the surface an "era of good feeling," manifested in the casting of all but one of the electoral votes for Mr. Monroe's reelection to the Presidency. It was only "on the surface"; that very year the contest cver the admission of

See Life of John Adams in Conrad's Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

2 See Note N.

Missouri revealed a determination in the North to destroy the power of the South in the Federal councils.

This imperfect picture of political movements preceding, during, and immediately succeeding the War of 1812, though wanting in much of the coloring which really belongs to it, is sufficiently vivid to enable us to discern three things:

1. That the commercial class in New England preferred to pursue their ocean traffic with all the insults and vexations Great Britain saw fit to inflict on them, rather than to allow the President and the Congress to defend the rights and the dignity of the United States against the aggressions of that proud mistress of the seas.

2. That by the operation of Federal laws, supplementing natural and other artificial forces, the wealth of the South had, even up to 1812, been flowing in large streams to the "regions north of the Potomac."

3. And that the channel along which it had flowed was then deepened and widened.

NOTE N.

After excitement sprang up in New England in consequence of non-importation acts, conciliatory measures marked the policy of the Administration and its friends in Congress. Those in that sec tion who had at all distinguished themselves in military or civil life seem to have been preferred over others for posts of honor.

1. William Hull, of Massachusetts, appointed Governor of Michigan Territory by Mr. Jefferson in 1805, was continued in office by Mr. Madison.

2. Dr. William Eustis, of Massachusetts, who, the Statesman's Manual says, "knew but little of military affairs," was appointed Secretary of War in 1809 by Mr. Madison, and Minister to the Netherlands in 1814.

3. Joseph B. Varnum, of Massachusetts, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in December, 1807, and again in 1809. 4. Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, the predecessor of William Eustis in the office of Secretary of War, served from 1801 to 1809; he was then appointed Collector of the port of Boston, and held the office till 1812, when he was appointed Senior Major-General-Commander-in-Chief-United States Army.

5. Gideon Granger, of Connecticut, was appointed Postmaster

General in 1801 by Mr. Jefferson, and was continued in office by Mr. Madison.

6. Joel Barlow, of Connecticut, was appointed Minister to France

in 1811.

7. John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, was appointed Minister to Russia in 1809; declined the office of Associate Justice of the Federal Supreme Court, offered him while he was in Russia; was appointed in 1813 one of the Peace Commissioners; was then appointed Minister to England, etc., etc.

8. Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts, was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by Mr. Madison in He declined the office.

1811.

9. Joseph Story of Massachusetts, was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1811 by Mr. Madison. 10. George W. Erving of Massachusetts, was appointed Minister to Spain in 1814 by Mr. Madison.

11. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, was chosen as Mr. Madison's running mate on the Presidential ticket in 1812, Governor and exSenator John Langdon of New Hampshire, having declined the honor.

12. Benjamin W. Crowninshield of Massachusetts, was appointed Secretary of the Navy in 1814. And

13. Jonathan Russell of Massachusetts, was appointed Minister to Sweden in 1814; was on the Peace Commission with J. Q. Adams and others; and was retained as Minister to Sweden by Mr. Monroe. In addition to thus honoring that section, some special favors were bestowed on certain of its industries:

1. The act of July 29, 1813, granted a drawback on imported salt used in curing fish, while denying it to persons who cured beef and pork, as is explained in another chapter.

2. An "important bill" was passed through the efforts of Mr. Cheves of South Carolina, in the winter of 1812-'13, remitting all fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed on the many violators of the Non-importation Acts.

3. An act was passed in the winter of 1815–'16 allowing a drawback on sugar refined, and on rum made from molasses.

4. An act was passed in the winter of 1816-'17 prohibiting foreign vessels from transporting goods to the United States unless they were produced in the countries to which the vessels belonged.

5. And in the winter of 1817-'18 an act was passed to extend for seven years the act of 1816, which was to expire in 1819, levying a tax of 25 per cent on all woolen and cotton goods imported from a foreign country, in order to enable New England and other manufacturers of similar goods to control the "home market."1

1 See Statesman's Manual, Vol. I, pages 348-548.